


Code Black

by ASmallVoice



Series: The Medium Between [3]
Category: Batman (Comics), Batman and Robin (Comics), Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: Bat Brothers, Bat Family, Batfamily Feels, Young Justice - Freeform, batfam, batfamcontentwar
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-12
Updated: 2018-04-01
Packaged: 2018-12-26 21:14:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,585
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12067107
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ASmallVoice/pseuds/ASmallVoice
Summary: With a dangerous serial killer on the loose, Batman manages to leave Robin home for the night. The boys have a movie night, but things take a dark turn when the killer learns Batman's identity and heads straight for the manor. With no Batman, what are a nest of pajama-clad Birds to do? #Batfamcontentwar





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This takes place in a potential future of The Medium Between/The Wrong Batcave.

Code Black

Present Time

It was movie night, and, after completely their homework, all four boys were curled up in the armchairs with strawberry milkshakes, popcorn, and blankets. Damian had curled up on his side facing the movie screen with his head near Dick, who was occasionally petting the child's hair. Jason was to Dick's left and Tim slumped to Jason's left. After much arguing, they had finally agreed on a Pixar film with respect to the fact they had a six year old in the room who had forgotten most of the gore he'd seen as a kid and had never been out as Robin.

Naturally, putting on the Incredibles in a room full of heroes led to a lot of crap-shooting. The boys commented on everything from fighting style to good points and "how the hell did he miss that? The guy was monologuing!" and "Well, at least she had her sh*t together. Seriously, the dude's surrounded by people with superpowers and there's no inhibitor collars, and he's giving up!? What an idiot!"

"Jason, stop cursing."

"Oh come. I heard worse than this when I was Dami's age."

"Still…"

It was about midway through the attack on the city before the Incredibles got there, when it happened. They couldn't make out what Alfred said, but they very clearly heard the four gun shots that rang out midway through his sentence. Dick and Jason froze, listening, while Damian and Tim jolted upright.

"What was that?" Tim asked quietly. Jason raised the remote to pause the movie, but Dick reached out and stopped him, shaking his head. The two eldest had a silent conversation in Batspeak, and then slowly shrunk down in their seats and down to the floor. Dick picked up Damian and Jason dragged Tim out of his seat. They kept low and crept to the door. Dick looked both ways and then ushered his brothers across the hall into the study quickly. They streaked across and took the lift down to the Batcave. He was about to follow with Damian when he saw a large shadow fall across the hallway, moving closer in his direction.

Dick quickly ducked back into the theatre, and ducked behind the seats. He was moving quickly and quietly in the direction of the other door when his senses went haywire. He hit the ground just before a spray of bullets ripped through the chairs where they had been sitting less than five minutes before. Damian's squeak was covered by the hailfire. Dick breathed deeply to stave off a panic attack and waited for the spray to stop. As he waited, he carefully untangled Damian. The kid looked terrified. Dick gave him a small kiss and, with a look that he hoped conveyed instructions to stay safe, slid the scared child beneath the ottoman.

The second he heard the gun click empty, Dick leapt up and jumped the chairs to attack their assailant.

Unfortunately, he forgot a few key facts. One, he had no clue who was attacking them. Two, he had no weapons. Three, he was in pajamas, and thus had no protection. He realized these key things when he found himself dangling by his wrist face to face with the man Batman had been actively hunting the past few weeks. Dick felt the blood leave his face. As the man grinned lecherously, he remembered that if they hadn't heard the gunshots he and his three brothers would be dead at the minute, and pulled his free arm back to punch the man in the face.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Two hours earlier

It was new moon, and the stars were difficult to see with the city's light pollution. On top of that, thick clouds were scattered across the sky. The air felt charged, full of static waiting to be brushed against, and the smell from the streets was unusually strong. There was an ominous feeling, as if the city's inhabitants were collectively holding their breath.

It was nights like these that made Batman on edge. He preferred to leave Robin at home on nights like these and with the rumors circulating the newest criminal, he felt extra thankful Alfred was around to protect them. Luckily, none of them had argued, all excited about the biweekly movie night Dick and Damian had established upon returning home. Bruce had left them in Dick and Damian's room finishing up their homework so they could start the movie soon. Damian, having already finished, was sitting on Dick's lap as the teen finished up an English essay. Jason was doing math on the other desk, while Tim read Sherlock, having also already finished his homework for the evening, and probably for the next week as well.

The newest criminal was a serial killer who had a thing against Batman, like so many did. He targeted single fathers with young children, and the media had dubbed him "Double Trip", because he often both shot his victims and slit their throats, occasionally using additional methods on the children. The man had, at several of the crime scenes, written messages for Batman in the blood of his victims. The latest one had disturbed Batman the most. "1, 2, 3, 4, how many more, Batman?' But there had only been three known attacks.

A tip had placed the criminal's base of operations at a classic abandoned warehouse near the docks. Batman landed softly on the roof of the building and retracted his grapple. There had been no patrol of guards or anything of the like. All signs indicated that the murderer was working alone, but there was no guarantee. Batman carefully removed a panel from the skylight on the roof and slipped onto a catwalk. He stalked through the shadows of the building searching. He found a computer with evidence of the previous murders, and a scrap book about the murders, and called in Commissioner Gordon.

Shortly after he finished the call, Batman heard a scuttle behind him and froze. He slowly turned around and found himself facing Double Trip's neck. Seven feet tall, the man was a goliath, thick muscles stretched taunt everywhere. He looked a bit like Bane when Bane was juiced up except with real muscles. He wore a dark shirt with a thick biker jacket, jeans, waterproof laced boots, sleek racing googles, and a gas mask.

That should have been his hint, but for some reason, probably the number of villains that wore gas masks who didn't have anything to do with gas, Batman did not pull out his gas mask and put it on. Double Trip was a tougher fighter than Batman had expected, and got a couple lucky gunshots in. The fight lasted five minutes before the gas really started to affect Batman. The first sign was a stumble, minor, but it led to Double Trip catching his cape. Batman quickly detached it. The dodges were getting closer and closer and then a knife dropped on Batman's head. Hard. And he sucked in a huge breath of some hallucinogen.

He couldn't see. Everything blurred into many different colors and, while he could feel the phantom limbs, his struggles were feeble. With his last presence of mind, he pressed the emergency signal on his belt. The whirl disappeared as the world darkened and faded.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

30 minutes earlier, about ten minutes after Batman passed out.

GCPD stormed the abandoned warehouse where Double Trip was rumored to be located, followed closely by Batgirl who had arrived at the same time. When they entered, they found the demon holding a limp Batman up with one hand. The other hand was on the edge of Batman's cowl. Batman was bleeding from several bullet wounds and knife slashes, although luckily, his throat hadn't been slashed.

"FREEZE! Drop the Bat!" The serial killer turned to face them. A low chuckle filled the air.

Double Trip removed his free hand from Batman's cowl and opened it. A moment later smoke filled the air and a body, Batman, came flying at the coughing police officers.

When the smoke cleared, Double Trip was gone. Commissioner Gordon cursed, and contacted the outside forces. A response came. Double Trip had shot one of the other officers and stole their car. He was gone.

Gordon cursed again. Batgirl, meanwhile, was examining Batman.

"He's alive," she said. There were several sighs of relief. "I need to get him to medical attention though. Did anyone happen to see where the Batmobile was parked?"

There were several nos. "Can't you call it like Batman does?"

Batgirl shook her head. "That option was… temporarily… disabled." She chose her words carefully, inwardly cursing Robin's recent joyride that got the privilege taken away. "It's still available for the bikes, but the Batmobile would be easier." She shook her head again, and called the bike, getting up and supporting Batman. The commissioner got his more tech-smart officers started on trying to track the missing car.

"Robin." One of the officers realized. "Where's Robin? Double Trip goes after both parents and kids."

"He's not out tonight." The officers helped her secure Batman to the bike with enough room for her to squeeze in front and drive. As they were finishing up, Batman's cowl slipped. Not enough to show anything related to his true identity, thankfully, but it shouldn't have done that.

"It's loose." Batgirl muttered. "Why is it loose? It shouldn't be loose, unless…" Her eyes widened behind the mask. Her hand flew up to her ear. "Batgirl to Robin. Come in, Robin!"

"Got it." A police officer said. "He's making a beeline for the outskirts of Gotham." Batgirl glanced in the man's direction.

"Batgirl to A, come in A!"

"Yin, Bennett, go with Batgirl and get Batman to a nondescript hospital. Guard him and make sure they don't remove his mask. Patton, get Merkel to a hospital as well. Montoya, Bullock, Anderson, with me, we're following Double Trip. The rest of you, stay on alert. If word gets out Batman is in the hospital, the city will go to hell. Stop all the crimes you can."

Yin went over to Batgirl as Bennett ran to grab a car. The girl was still desperately trying to contact Robin or any other member of the Batfamily.

"We're giving you an escort to the hospital, to protect Batman from identity peeks. Do you have a safe doctor to go to."

Batgirl looked at them, hesitantly. "You'll keep it a secret."

"Of course. And Bennett will as well."

"Alright." She let her hand drop from her earpiece. "Let's go. The faster we get him to a doctor, the faster I can check on Robin." She slipped onto her bike, and took off, hearing the car start up and follow her.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Where are they?" Tim asked, as Jason ran around grabbing weapons and medical supplies. The teen had already changed into his Robin outfit. Jason stopped and sighed.

"I don't know, but if they're not down here by now, they were probably spotted. Dick won't risk bringing the shooter down here. You know how he is." He put his mask on. "Pull up the house security footage. I need to see where they are and if the entrance is clear."

Tim nodded, and quickly pulled it up. Jason leaned over his shoulder, searching the screen as he shoved a communicator in his ear. He adjusted it to include the police frequency, and then scowled.

"The police know Double Trip is here. They're on their way. Should be here in ten."

Tim gasped as he spotted the screen Dick was in. "We don't have that much time. He's killing Dick!" Jason gripped Tim's shoulder. "The entrance is clear. I'm going up to help. Make it look like I came in another way. Try to contact Batman or Batgirl. Tell me if you see Damian, and, unless someone makes it down here, DON'T. LEAVE. THE. CAVE."

"Okay." Tim mumbled.

Jason gave his shoulder one last squeeze than took off up the stairs.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dick pulled weakly at Double Trip's arm, trying to loosen the iron grip the monster had around his neck. It was tight, cutting into his air, but not fully, leaving him with the suffocating feeling without the ability to pass out. He had tried kicking the man, but his socked feet had no real effect on the goliath, even when Dick kicked him in the groin.

The living room was a disaster. After Dick had punched Double Trip in the face, he had broken free of the initial grip and proceeded to throw everything he could reach at the man. He'd been careful to draw the man away from the ottoman where he'd hidden Damian, as well as making sure none of the milkshakes landed in that area. Running low on things to throw, he had lashed out with a sweeping kick to knock Double Trip down. It had worked, and Double Trip had fallen onto the glass, but Dick had gain several cuts on his leg in the process. The monster stood up bleeding in several places, the smirk the man had earlier fading into a scowl. Dick stayed in a crouch, waiting for Double Trip to make the first move. The man had reached forward, and Dick had gone under and attempted to throw the man.

Double Trip grabbed the back of Dick's pajama shirt with his other hand and yanked to throw the kid off balance. Dick tried to slip out of it, but Double Trip grabbed Dick's arm and twisted it behind his back, halting the effort with the shirt halfway over Dick's head. Dick cried out, and then bit down on his cry and jerked his arm out of Double Trip's grip. He slipped the rest of the way out of his shirt, and turned to face his opponent.

Dick was confused to see an amused smile on the man as Double Trip threw the shirt away. Unnerved, he took a single step back, and yelped as his foot landed on the base of one of the milkshake glasses. The base rolled under his foot, throwing off his balance for a second before he managed to shift his foot directly onto the broken glass next to it. He went down hard onto more broken glass, barely managing to keep his head and neck upright, away from the ground. Double Trip moved quickly, scooping the boy up with his left arm around the boy's neck.

Which brought them to now, with Dick tugging furtively at Double Trip's arm, while the man reached his right arm back and pulled out a knife. The man didn't say a word, although the grin grew, as he swiped at Dick's arms with the knife. The deep cuts that appeared served as a warning, and Dick pulled them down. The arm around Dick's neck tightened slightly, and Dick jerked his arms upwards. Double Trip knocked them aside, and touched the tip of the knife to Dick's bare chest above his heart. Dick jerked again as the man pressed the knife down and dragged it about four inches down.

"HEY!" Dick felt his heart plummet to his feet as he heard Jason's shout. He tried his hardest to look to his right where it had come from, but the grip around his neck kept him from turning his head. A low, menacing chuckle filled the air. "Drop him." Robin demanded.

Rather than dropping Dick, Double Trip looked back at his captive, placed the knife near the top of the cut and started carving a semicircle. Dick gave a gurgled cry.

"Hey! I'm talking to you!"

Double Trip took a quick step backwards and Dick felt a batarang pierce his right upper arm. He gave another gurgled cry, the closest thing to a scream he could get. The knife turned to draw a line at a 45 degree angle from where the semicircle intersected the original line. An 'R'? Double Trip was drawing an R? Why?

"Shit." Robin muttered. There were running footsteps, and Dick suddenly felt himself falling. He sucked in breath as he landed on the glass again. Trying desperately to get his breath, he glanced up at the fight above him. Robin flipped off of Double Trip to land next to his brother, leaving a beeping batbomb behind. He winced when the glass dug into his gloved hand, before he landed on his feet next to Dick.

"Who threw the milkshakes?" Dick flushed even as his breath evened out. Maybe that hadn't been the best idea… "Never mind." Robin hissed. "Where's Damian? I need you to go downstairs the first opening you get." Dick nodded. At that moment, the bomb exploded and Double Trip went down with the force of the explosion.

"He's under the ottoman." Dick whispered.

"Get him and go. I'll be right behind you." Robin pulled out some smoke bombs. Dick took that as he cue to go grab the youngest and leapt to the ottoman. He quickly pulled Damian out and started for the elevator. Double Trip was recovering when they neared him, but Robin struck the man in the head with a bo staff, and threw down a smoke bomb. Dick made it to the elevator and quickly entered the security codes to open the elevator. He looked back for Robin.

"Robin, hurry!" He called. Robin came sprinting out of the smoke cloud and slid into the elevator, narrowly dodging three bullets as he came. Dick pressed the button that closed the door while Damian hit the one that would bring them downstairs. The wall panel started to close, but not before four bullets impacted the back of the elevator. Dick cried out as one passed through his shoulder.

The door closed, and the elevator dropped. Above them, they heard the sound of sirens.

"GOTHAM PD! PUT YOUR HANDS IN THE AIR!"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Tim watched the cameras with not a small bit of fear. Jason, Dick, and Damian were almost to the elevator, but the police had just arrived and there was a chance they would spot the elevator going down. Wayne Manor was compromised, especially with Alfred down, and the Batcave might be right behind it, if the way Double Trip was shooting at the elevator, and then the wood panel that hid the elevator shaft was any indication. As soon as Robin had gone up to help, Tim had set about downloading everything on the batcomputer onto multiple, color coded flash drives. Villain profiles on the blue one. Heroes on the black one. Case files on the yellow and green. Everything else on the red one. The download was about 50% complete, but would take at least another ten minutes.

He knew he should have focused on contacting Batgirl or Batman, but the police radio had mentioned Batman was down, and if the Commissioner was on the case and put two and two together about Batgirl… It would take her too long to get here anyways. The police had a huge head start on her.

"Batgirl to Batcave. Come in Batcave. Please work…" Hearing Barbara's voice from the consul, Tim practically leapt for the mic.

"Batgirl?" He asked.

"Robin! Is that you?"

"Umm. Well, this is Rob 3." Jason chose that moment to come out of the elevator supporting a limping older brother.

"Is that Batgirl?"

Tim nodded.

"Rob 3. I've been trying to contact you guys for the last half hour. Double Trip is on the way to your house, followed by the police."

Jason snorted. "Lock down the cave and then fill her in, Tim. We need to keep both Double Trip and the police out of here. Hopefully, they'll think it's a bunker, rather than the Batcave." Tim quickly typed in the lockdown codes, and listened as the Cave started to secure itself. Nobody would get in or out unless the proper codes were entered except through a small tunnel that only the birds, Batman, and Alfred knew about. It was too small for Batman and Alfred to fit through, and Jason would be pushing it. It was meant as an escape route and wound down the mountain for miles, with several hatches to out so they were unlikely to get caved in, all the way to the edge of the city nearest the Zeta Tubes. Even that was only an out. It couldn't be opened from the outside.

"We know about Double Trip, Batgirl." Tim said. "We've been a little busy."

"Busy? Are you all alright?"

"We are, but Alfred's not. He had four bullet wounds to the chest. I think he's… He hasn't moved, Babs, he hasn't moved."

"O-okay. I'm almost to the Manor. What do you want me to do?"

"Keep them away from the Cave. Jason's helping Dick now, and then, I don't know what we're doing."

"Is the cave locked down?" Jason called from the infirmary.

"Yeah!" Tim called back.

"Alright. I can do that. I'm pulling up now. Keep me posted." Batgirl said.

Tim glanced at the download. 75% complete. "Damian, I need you to stay here and watch the comms. You're Rob Four. If you need to respond to someone, press this button and say 'This is Rob Four.' Then repeat the person's name. Say go, and let go of the button so they can respond."

"I know how to use a comm unit." Damian scowled.

"I know. But it makes me feel better to be sure. I'm going to go check on Dick and Jason and then grab us both something to change into. Unless Jay needs help. If he does, I'll help and then grab us both something to change into."

"Okay."

"Shout if you need us."

Tim hurried to the medical section. Jason pulled a glass shard out of Dick's back just as Tim entered. Dick had a breathing mask on, oxygen steadily flowing. Several cuts on his chest were bleeding to blur the pattern there and there were bandages tied tightly around his forearms. There was a pad taped over the bullet wound on Dick's shoulder, but it wasn't under as much pressure as it should be due to all the glass shards. "How's it going?" Tim asked. Jason shook his head.

"He's lost too much blood. Having trouble staying up." Jason replied. "Get me some O negative from the blood bank."

"On it." Tim said. Tim yanked on a pair of gloves, and then ran and grabbed a bag of O negative and an IV stand with needle, dragging it over to his brother. "Here." He said.

"Sweet." Jason said. "Here." He handed the tools he'd been using to get the glass out and the tray he'd been putting the glass on to Tim. "Take these and keep working on getting the glass out while I set him up." Jason found a vein above the major cuts on Dick's arm, the one that hadn't been shot, and inserted the needle. He got the drip set up and activated it. He glanced up worriedly when Dick didn't even flinch, and saw that the teen's eyes were glazed over.

"Shit. He's gone into shock. We might need another bag if this one doesn't help."

"Do we have time for two bags?" Tim asked. "The police will try to break in here before long. Batgirl won't be able to hold them off long if they start to suspect they're looking for the Batcave."

"We'll be okay, Tim. The cave's defenses are built to withstand Superman and at least half the League at once while on lockdown. It might not be completely foolproof due to the unexplored tunnels, but it should keep the police out for a while." Jason grabbed another set of tools and started pulling glass out of Dick's leg. There wasn't much that had stuck in the cuts, so he figured he'd be able to clean and bandage it quickly and stop blood leakage from that part at least.

"If you say so." Tim said sullenly. They worked in silence for a couple minutes.

"TIM!" Damian called. Tim pulled out the shard he'd been working on, and glanced up as Jason.

"Go." Jason jerked his head towards Damian. Tim slipped the gloves off and hurried over to his little brother.

"What is it Damian?"

"Two things. One, your download is complete. Two, there's a helicopter above the house and the police are examining the elevator shaft. I think they're almost through the wood panel. Batgirl is arguing with them." He said.

"Shit." Tim muttered. He quickly checked that the flash drives were successfully encoded, setting the password to something long, complicated, and different for each drive. He disconnected the flash drives, and strung them all onto necklaces. "Here." He said, pulling the yellow and green ones over Damian's head. He pulled the other three over his head. "JASON!" He shouted.

"WHAT?" Jason shouted back. Tim ran over to poke his head into the medical center.

"I put everything from the computer onto drives. Should I delete everything on the main computer?"

"You're sure you got everything?"

"Pretty sure."

"Pretty sure?"

"Like 95%."

"Alright. Then do it. Anything you didn't get is probably better off destroyed than in the wrong hands."

"On it."

"What should I do?" Damian asked, gripping the two flash drives around his neck.

"Do you know where the Birdie Escape Tunnel is?"

"Yeah. Dick showed it to me."

"Go grab a utility belt from the gear area and as much money as you can. Pull out a flashlight. Then go to the tunnel, and get the door open. Go inside and start down the tunnel. We'll be right behind you."

Damian looked up at him hesitantly, searching his face. Apparently seeing something there that comforted him. The boy's expression turned to determined. He gave a brief nod and scurried off. Tim finished starting the deletion sequence. He also activated a sequence to destroy all classified information in the cave. Classified as in possibly able to give away the identity of other superheroes. Checking the timing and giving a nervous glance to the elevator, Tim rushed off to the weapons area where Damian was pulling on his boots. Tim knelt down beside the kid and quickly tied the laces. He quickly shoved his own boots on. Tim grabbed three grab bags, set up for an emergency like this, and shoved extra weapons and a bunch of cash into the bag. He slung one over his shoulders and held the other two in his hands. He gestured towards the tunnel, and started running towards it. Damian trotted after him, a kid-sized grab bag already slung over his shoulders along with a utility belt.

Jason met him by the tunnel, supporting a dizzy, but thankfully conscious Dick. They both had boots on. The barely teenager had already opened the door. He took two of the grab bags, giving one to Dick.

"Damian first. Then Tim. Then Dick. I'll take up the back." His brothers nodded, seeing no point in arguing. On a normal day, Dick might have, but he was in no condition to right now. Damian clicked on the flashlight, and crawled into the tunnel. Tim quickly followed. He heard Dick clumsily follow him in. The door clanged shut behind them, and he heard beeps as Jason set up an electronic lock. "Go." He hissed. The two younger boys nodded, and took off down the tunnel.


	2. Chapter 2

April Fools! 

Only one of my stories that is updated today has a real chapter and this is not it.


End file.
